The French House, Soho.

London's last serious bohemian pub.

The French House occupies a narrow three storey building on Dean Street that has been a pub since 1891. Originally The York Minster, it was bought before the war by a Belgian named Victor Berlemont who turned it into the unofficial headquarters of the Free French Forces in 1940. Charles de Gaulle drank here. The Resistance broadcast plans were made over half pints in the back snug. The locals started calling it "the French" and the name stuck.

After the war it became Soho's bohemian core. Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Dylan Thomas, Brendan Behan, Peter O'Toole. The bar was the home of every important hangover in twentieth century English letters. It is owned today by the Hasluck family, who refuse to make any change that the regulars would notice.

Why this matters. The French House is the last serious bohemian pub left in Soho. Every other one has been turned into a chain or refurbished into a cocktail bar. The French has refused. The walls are covered with photographs of writers and painters who drank here, all of whom are now dead.

Half pints only. The unwritten enforcement.

The French House serves beer only in half pints at the bar. This is unwritten policy, never displayed. The bartenders pour halves regardless of what you order. If you ask for a pint they will pour you two halves and place them next to each other. The reason given by the regulars is that this keeps the bar moving and the conversation flowing. The reason given by the staff is that it is what Victor Berlemont wanted.

This rule, more than any other, is the French House operating principle. It forces a slower drinking pace and a faster bar rotation. A half pint takes ten minutes. You drink three before dinner, talk to the regular next to you, leave with a sense of having been somewhere. A pint at the Punch Bowl takes thirty minutes and you talk to nobody.

Wine and spirits are served in normal measures. The half-pint rule applies only to beer. Suchard liqueurs and Pernod are poured in fingers like the regulars are reading off a 1962 menu, which they are.

Pernod and water, half pint of bitter, glass of house red.

• The classic French House aperitif: Pernod and water, six pounds. The bartender pours the Pernod first, then a small jug of water for you to add yourself. The cloud is the point.
• The half pint: Old Speckled Hen, four pounds for a half. The English bitter cycle.
• The wine: the bar's house red is from a small Loire producer, by the glass at seven pounds. The bar has always served good cheap French wine. This is unchanged.
• The dinner upstairs: the French House restaurant on the first floor was run from 2014 to 2019 by Henrietta Lovell, the Rare Tea Company founder. It is now a small set-menu kitchen with a serious reputation. Book separately.
• The thing nobody knows: the bar pours a small Calvados from a producer they have used for thirty years. Order it neat at the end of the evening and the bartender will look at you a beat longer.

5pm sharp. The London after-work crowd, the French way.

The French House opens at noon and closes at 11pm. London licensing is the limiting factor: the bar would happily stay open until 1am if it could. Closing is hard at 11pm and the call comes ten minutes early.

The peak hour is 6pm to 8pm Friday, when half of media Soho cycles through. The honest hour is 5pm Tuesday or Wednesday: the regulars are settling in, the bar has space at the front, and the cigarette break crowd outside on Dean Street has not yet exceeded the door's capacity.

Sunday between noon and 4pm is the secret. The bar is quiet, the kitchen is open, the regulars who run Soho's bookshops drink with a paperback open on the bar. This is the French House at its most novelistic. Order a Pernod and water and read.

No mobile phones at the front of the bar.

The French House has a posted policy against mobile phones at the front of the bar. The sign is small but real. The staff enforce it. If you take a phone call standing at the bar, the staff will ask you to step outside. If you take a photograph of the bar from the bar, the staff will ask you to put your phone away.

The rule extends to laptops and tablets, although those are rare. The back of the bar, near the snug, has a small permitted phone zone. The toilets are also acceptable. The front of the bar is a phone-free zone, and the rule has been in force since 2007.

This is one of the unique rules among the dive bars on this list. It is also the most respected. Once you sit and drink without your phone for an hour, you understand why the bar enforces it. Conversation reasserts itself in twenty minutes.

Forty pounds per person, central Soho.

Three half pints at twelve pounds. Two Pernod-and-waters at twelve. Tip is rare in London pubs but the staff appreciate a five pound coin left on the bar at the end. Plan for thirty-five to forty-five pounds per person for a three hour visit at the front. The upstairs restaurant is a separate evening and another forty-five pounds per person.

The French House is one of the most economical drinking experiences left in central London. Most Soho pubs have crept past five pounds for a half pint. The French has held. This is also why the bar feels like a different decade.

Soho writers, the older ad guys, and the literary tourists.

The French House clientele is the closest thing London has to a working bohemia. Writers from the Spectator and the LRB. Older art directors from the Soho ad agencies. Theatre people from the West End between matinee and evening shows. A small contingent of literary tourists who have read Jeffrey Bernard's Spectator columns and want to see the chairs.

You will not find a tech crowd here. No laptops. No Teams calls. The bar's economic model has remained pre-Internet by design. The result is that the conversation in the room is verifiably more interesting than the conversation at most West End cocktail bars at the same hour.

How not to be the worst person at the French.

• Do not order a pint. You will be poured two halves and the bartender will look at you in a way you remember.
• Do not take a phone call at the front. Step outside or to the back.
• Do not photograph the bar from the bar. Step outside if you must.
• Do not request the table by the window for an Instagram post. The staff will not move anyone for you.
• Do not arrive on a Friday at 7pm and expect a table. The bar will be three deep and the snug will be claimed by 6pm.
• Do not bring a stag party. The bar has refused service to stag parties since 2009 and the policy is firm.
• Do not ask the bartender about Francis Bacon. The regular at the next stool may know him, the bartender will not. Ask politely or read about him before you arrive.

The French at 5pm, dinner upstairs at 7pm, Coach & Horses for the third drink.

The classic Soho evening: arrive at the French House at 5pm for two halves and a Pernod. Climb the stairs to the upstairs restaurant at 7pm for the set menu. Walk three doors down to the Coach & Horses for the closing half pint at 9:30pm. End at Bar Italia for the espresso that gets you home.

For more bars in the area, see our London city guide, the hidden gems list, and the companion Coach & Horses entry on this list.

Yes. The most coherent dive bar in Europe.